Cold takes toll on sprinkler systems

Below-zero temperatures early Tuesday froze water in three area buildings’ sprinkler systems, bursting two pipe heads and a fitting and spewing water, including at Alton Square.

“Water was flowing out from under the door on the west side” of Alton Square, said Chief Bernie Sebold of the Alton Fire Department when firefighters arrived in response to the 3:03 a.m. waterflow alarm. “We could see the glass was frosted over and we quickly gained access to the inside. Water was flowing out of the ceiling; water was running through the floor in a utility channel. There was 1.5 inches of water on the second floor” in that part of the west side of the mall.

The water subsequently leaked down to the first floor, to Kirlin’s Hallmark and a vacant store space.

The shopping center still opened Tuesday, but three businesses affected by the interior flooding were closed: Things Remembered, Savvi Formalware and Kirlin’s.

“There is a lot of water to get up; we have a lot of cleanup to do,” Ehlers said late Tuesday morning, as she awaited more cleanup help. “We cordoned off some of the mall, and there was an issue on the parking lot” with water pumped outside freezing solid in the still, bitterly cold morning. “It is an ice rink,” she said, chuckling.

“It is a little bit of an obstacle, but we can get through it.”

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature was -5 F at 3 a.m.

“We are going to see more of these, they usually are in sprinkler systems up in the ceiling between the roof and ceiling, where it tends to be colder,” Sebold said.

Besides Alton Square’s flooding, there were two breaks in sprinkler system heads elsewhere later Tuesday morning, when the temperature had “climbed” to 1 F.

A water flow alarm sounded after 10 a.m. at Argosy Casino Alton, alerting officials to a leak in a sprinkler system head located near administrative offices. Scott Saunders, vice president and general manager, said the amount of water that leaked from the burst was not great, as personnel were on hand to stop the flow.

“We took care of it ourselves; it was not in the guest area,” he said.

Alton firefighters had been alerted to the Argosy break but were called off from responding to the call.

The third call, at about 10:30 a.m. regarded a serious water leak from a burst sprinkler system pipe head in the ceiling of a storage room at First Baptist Church of Bethalto, 201 N. Moreland Road.

“We’ve been mopping and sweeping water,” said Larry Rhodes, associate pastor for worship and discipleship. Rhodes said he was in a meeting when the alarm sounded, which alerted building occupants and the Bethalto Fire Department.

The leak was in a lower-level space under stairs in the northwest corner of the church, which Rhodes said is the coldest part of the building. The water flooded into the carpeted educational suites that adults use for Bible study and meetings, and into the Commons, with rubber-vinyl composite flooring.

“It was seeping through the door, it was about 1.5 inches up on my sneakers,” Rhodes said. “The biggest mess is the carpeting.”

He said it was the first such leak in the church’s six years.

Bethalto firefighters turned off the water supply and stayed on site until workers from GRP Mechanical in Bethalto could install a new pipe head and reactivate the sprinkler system.

At Alton Square, Sebold said pressure from the frozen sprinkler system water line had split an iron, T-fitting in half, which was above a cold vestibule at the southern, west mall entrance by Savvi Formalware. He said when the water freezes in a pipe, it expands and the pressure breaches a weak point. The “new,” incoming water then rushes into the pipes and floods out through the break. In event of a fire, the water would spray out of the head.

The shopping center has sensors throughout that detect the presence of water from the sprinkler system — either from a leak or activated by smoke — and sets off a waterflow alarm. Sebold said Alton Square also has a pump that then kicks in higher water pressure to supply the sprinkler system, which is helpful in the event of a fire but not during a leak. Firefighters arriving at the scene had to turn off the control valves in the fire pump pit outside the building, as well as the electric circuit breakers.

He said they hooked up a 2.5-inch diameter hose with which to pump out water from the building into the parking lot and moved out or covered merchandise at Kirlin’s to protect it from the deluge. “It was a salvage operation where we protected as much inventory as we could to limit their loss,” Sebold said. “We were glad to be able to go out there and do this; at least we were able to limit the damage.”

Sebold said firefighters, including himself, stayed at Alton Square until 4:45 a.m. Kane Mechanical of East Alton then replaced the “T” fitting and reactivted the system.

While the effects of the weather caused problems indoors Tuesday, outdoors the Alton Public Works Department crews continued clearing snow from the myriad of city streets.

“It is so cold; it is a dry snow,” Public Works Director Bob Barnhart said. “People still have traction. The first few nights we worked 16-hour shifts, but a lot of streets didn’t get done. We wanted to clear the main roads first.”

Barnhart said early Tuesday afternoon he was waiting for temperatures to rise to at least 5 degrees F, so his crews could start putting down ice melt. He said it would not be effective until the weather warmed to that point. Had staff applied the chemicals early on before it got bitterly cold, it would have melted the snow and then the water would have frozen into dangerous ice sheets throughout Alton.

“We would be creating a hazard,” he said.

He said the street crew began working at about 2 a.m. Sunday, all day until 4 p.m., and were on call for “hot spots” until their shifts began again Monday.